Friday, April 21, 7:30 pm - Mahaney Center for the Arts at Middlebury College, Middlebury, Vermont
Sunday, April 23, 3:00 pm - McCarthy Arts Center at Saint Michael’s College, Colchester, Vermont
Saturday, April 29, 7:30 pm - Unitarian Church of Montpelier, Montpelier, Vermont
The Vermont Choral Union celebrates 50 years of singing timeless classical a cappella music with a special concert series during the last two weekends in April 2017. Directed by Jeff Rehbach, the choir is one of the longest established community-based ensembles in Vermont, founded in 1967 by UVM professor James G. Chapman.
The Choral Union’s 36 singers take flight with soaring a cappella selections from Renaissance times to the present. The program, titled Wings of Song, highlights works drawn from five decades of Vermont Choral Union repertoire.
The centerpiece of the program features a dazzling choral suite commissioned for the ensemble’s 50th anniversary and composed by award-winning composer and Middlebury College graduate Christina Whitten Thomas. She scores the work for 8-part choir and flute, set to poetry by three Vermont writers: “I Was There” by Jay Parini, poet, novelist, biographer, and critic; “Canticle” by Abigail Carroll, historical author and poet; and "Green and Gold," by Jean Killary. A patient at Vermont State Hospital in the ’40s and ’50s, Killary’s poem about goldfinches flitting among the leaves of birch trees inspired the magnificent mural by Vermont artist Sarah-Lee Terrat at the renovated state office building in Waterbury.
Wings of Song encompasses a mix of sacred and secular songs that cross the centuries from the European and North American continents. The program includes 18th-century psalm settings by historic Vermont figures such as Justin Morgan and Elisha West, researched and brought to light by Professor Chapman. Other composers bring to life texts from church traditions, theater and romance, and the natural world. They include such well-known composers as William Byrd, Heinrich Schütz, Johannes Brahms, Josef Rheinberger, Maurice Duruflé, Charles Villiers Stanford, Francis Poulenc, Samuel Barber, Relly Raffman, Robert Baksa, Will Todd, and Randall Thompson.
The Choral Union's soaring sounds take wing and promise to lift your spirits as spring takes hold in Vermont.
Support for these concerts comes from Choral Arts New England and Vermont Public Radio. Additional support from the Vermont Community Foundation provides free tickets and transportation to the Sunday concert to many of the residents of Cathedral Square senior housing communities across Chittenden County. Of special note, more than two dozen alumni of the Choral Union will participate in the celebratory Sunday afternoon performance.
Tickets will be available at the door. For details about advance ticket sales, see www.vtchoralunion.org.
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